Thursday, 5 June 2014

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

I was reading the life of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the great founder of modern Turkey. Before he came to power Turkey was regarded as the 'sick man of Europe'. This was because Turkey remained feudal and backward under the Sultans, who claimed to be the khalifa of all Muslims in the world. Europe had moved forward, whereas Turkey was left far behind in every field, social, economic, military, etc. The archaic, outdated Muslim shariat law was still being applied, which inter alia discriminated against women and treated them as inferior.So Mustafa Kemal decided to modernize Turkish society. For achieving this end he forbade women to wear veils (burqa) because he regarded it as a sign of backwardness.In 1926 he promulgated the Turkish Civil Code, modelled on the Swiss Civil Code, granting equal rights to women as men in all matters like divorce, inheritance, etc.In my opinion we in India should do the same if we wish to progress, and we should not bother about the opinion of feudal reactionary elements

Absolutely . You are right .And to add from mys point neither Mohammedh Ali Jinnaha was a Mustafa Kamal nor do we have a Mustafa Kamal among the Muslims of the sub continent.And it was Gandhi who after the British partition of Bengal on communal lines brought forth the erroneous idea of religion into politics by his blunder of the Khilafat movement.